Author Archive

Paul Sporer Baseball Chat – May 17th, 2019

The transcript is now live!

12:00

Paul Sporer: It’s time to talk some baseball!!!

12:00

Mark Shapiro: What would you do with Colin Mchugh in 12 team dynasty league?

12:01

Paul Sporer: I’m not against cutting him. I think he’ll be solid out of the pen, but I’m not sure how useful a decent non-saves RP is in 12-teamer

12:01

hscer: Talked a lot about Tigers on #688 but didn’t hear Goodrum’s name…I’m still holding as a bench bat in some places, but not sure how bright that is all else equal

12:01

Paul Sporer: Did a podcast with Alex Fast of PitcherlIst (out later today) and Goodrum gets some love. I think there’s some upside. He deserves better than we’ve seen

12:02

Vern Rapp: Expectation for Soroka ROS? He can’t be this good, obviously, but is low 3.00s ERA and sub 1.10 WHIP feasible?

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 688 – Prospect FAABstravaganza

5/16/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 20, the best baseball strategy game ever made – available NOW on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms! Go to ootpdevelopments.com to order now and save 10% with the code SLEEPER20!

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NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS/INJURIES/RUMORS (8:42)

**JOIN THE NFBC MEMORIAL DAY 2ND CHANCE LEAGUES**

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 687 – Rotation Check-Ins: First 10 Teams

5/15/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 20, the best baseball strategy game ever made – available NOW on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms! Go to ootpdevelopments.com to order now and save 10% with the code SLEEPER20!

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ROTATION CHECK-INS BY TEAM

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Leaderboards Since the Second Half of 2018: AVG and HR

I took a look at the batting leaderboards since the start of the 2018 second half (July 19th). I didn’t set out to find anything in particular, I just wanted to see what’s been going on over the last three-plus months of games. I used a 300 PA cutoff which gave us 170 hitters. Here’s a few interesting nuggets I found on the AVG & HR boards:

BATTING AVERAGE

Christian Yelich | .357 in 457 PA – Yelich is unsurprisingly lapping the field with a 16-point advantage (he also has a 111-point OPS advantage over Mike Trout) over the next guy. I haven’t looked at every category yet, but I’m sure Yelich has substantial leads in several of them given his utterly insane finish that has carried over into this year.

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 686 – Another Batch of Call-Ups

5/13/19 … er 5/14/19 (some technical issues held the pod over until Tuesday, my apologies!)

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 20, the best baseball strategy game ever made – available NOW on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms! Go to ootpdevelopments.com to order now and save 10% with the code SLEEPER20!

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TUESDAY’S DRAFTKINGS GAME FOR THE SHOW

NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS/INJURIES/RUMORS (8:42)

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The 10: High Performers in the High Minors

This week we’re looking at 10 minor leaguers who are going off in the high minors (AA/AAA). We’ll look at what they’re doing and how it might impact a future call-up.

Yordan Alvarez | OF/1B – HOU

The #7 prospect on the Astros list is going off so far this year, already clubbing 14 homers in just 134 PA. He has a 213 wRC+ while improving both his strikeout (21%) and walk (14%) rates. His obscene 48% HR/FB rate obviously won’t continue, but he is absolutely locked in and knocking on the door of the bigs.

Playing time is tight in Houston, but Tyler White needs to be looking over his shoulder with that 95 wRC+. Alvarez isn’t on the 40-man while Kyle Tucker is, but I can’t see how Alvarez’s performance wouldn’t have him first in line if a spot opens, even with it needing the extra work to get him on the 40-man.

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 685 – Fireside Chat: Assessing Darvish & Musgrove

5/10/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 20, the best baseball strategy game ever made – available NOW on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms! Go to ootpdevelopments.com to order now and save 10% with the code SLEEPER20!

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Fireside Chat

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Paul Sporer Baseball Chat – May 10th, 2019

The transcript is below!

12:24

Paul Sporer: Hey y’all, have to run a tight 30 minutes today because of the podcast schedule, but let’s talk some baseball!

12:26

Jeff: Paul – I read Nick’s take on Musgrove’s awful night last night. How do you feel about some recent poor starts?

12:26

Paul Sporer: It’s funny this is the first Q… today’s fireside is about Musgrove (& Darvish)

12:26

RK: Will Detroit call up Casey Mize anytime soon?

12:27

Paul Sporer: Maaaaybe in the summer, but not this month or anything, IMO

12:27

CT: Hey Paul, thanks as always for everything. A seemingly easy question, but kinda confounding at the same time — pick two for next week: Strasburg @ Cubs, Castillo @ Cubs, or Montas @ Tigers

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 684 – Surprising Top 10s

5/9/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 20, the best baseball strategy game ever made – available NOW on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms! Go to ootpdevelopments.com to order now and save 10% with the code SLEEPER20!

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(Paul’s league: 5/24, 11pm ET; Justin’s league: 5/25, 10pm ET)

NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS/INJURIES/RUMORS (8:42)

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Lucas Giolito is on the Radar

Lucas Giolito is just 24 years old. It might seem like he’s older due an effect called “prospect fatigue” as he’s been in the baseball consciousness since being drafted back in 2012. He went 16th overall to the Washington Nationals thanks to concerns about his elbow that eventually led to Tommy John surgery. He cruised through the low minors and soared up prospect lists, eventually landing top 5 before his MLB debut in 2016. He sputtered through 21 innings as a 21-year old and was subsequently dealt that winter with Reynaldo Lopez and Dane Dunning for Adam Eaton. His prospect stock fell a bit on the heels of the ugly debut, but he was still a solid top 25 prospect as he joined the Chicago White Sox.

It these last three years with the White Sox where the fatigue has set in. A modest full season effort in Triple-A gave way to a positive seven-start run to cap off 2017, though the skills didn’t marry well with the 2.38 ERA/0.95 WHIP combo. A brutal 2018 (6.13 ERA/1.48 WHIP) left him as an afterthought on the fantasy landscape coming into 2019, but now he’s worth a closer look. He opened his season with a gem against the Royals, followed quickly by a pair of four-walk efforts that fueled nine runs allowed in 9.3 innings. He was dealing again versus the Royals in his fourth start before a hamstring injury cut him down and led to a two-week IL stint.

That brings us to the intriguing portion of this young season.

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